Quick voting app: which live polling tools exist and what their free plans cover
A quick voting app lets a group answer a question on their own devices and see the tally move in real time. Fast Poll counts every tap in real time, Vevox takes votes through a 9-digit session ID, and StrawPoll lets a creator start without signing up. Slido and Mentimeter both offer free plans with caps on participants.
Written by BuyPollVotes editorial desk | Last checked
Live polling websites: where each tool runs
Eight tools are documented in the pages checked for this article: StrawPoll, Slido, Mentimeter, Vevox, Fast Poll, Poll Everywhere, Miro and Simply Voting. Simply Voting also documents a telephone voting system for callers; the others are screen-based. Anyone picking a live polling website starts from the join method, because it decides how much the audience has to do.
StrawPoll works as a website free of any signup step for the person creating the question: its page says no signup is required. Vevox asks participants to open a web app on a mobile device. Fast Poll talks in taps. A university support page describes Poll Everywhere as an audience-response tool for phones, tablets and computers.
What makes a quick voting tool quick
A quick voting tool earns the word when three things are short: the wait to start, the path to an answer, and the time before the tally moves. Fast Poll speaks to the third in its own words: every tap is counted in real time. Vevox speaks to the second: participants enter a 9-digit session ID in a web app and they are in. Neither description gives a time in seconds, so no stopwatch is offered here.
An instant voting app is the same idea under another name. Fast Poll's own line is instant votes with real-time results, and Vevox describes live polling with results in real time on any web-enabled device. Instant and quick both describe the tally, and the pages checked say nothing about how long the setup takes.
- Fast Poll: instant votes, real-time results, every tap counted as it happens.
- Vevox: results in real time on any web-enabled device, joined by a 9-digit session ID.
- Poll Everywhere: responses update in real time as audiences answer via their device.
Live poll maker: creating a poll and setting it up
A live poll maker does two jobs: it builds the question and it opens the room. On StrawPoll the first job needs no account, because its page says no signup is required, and the free plan has no limit on how many polls a creator makes. Slido's free Basic plan is tighter, with up to three polls and one quiz within each Slido.
Poll Everywhere lists the question types it supports: multiple-choice, word clouds, open-ended responses, clickable images, Q&A and competitions. Miro puts its voting tool in the top right corner of the collaboration toolbar, under the Facilitation tools and Reactions icon, and its help page notes that voting is anonymous. Mentimeter's free plan allows presentations until a monthly total of 50 participants is reached.
Templates and builders are not described in the pages checked for this article, so none is named here and none is recommended.
How voters join: session ID, web app, link or phone call
Voters reach a live session in three documented ways. Vevox has participants open its web app on a mobile device and enter a 9-digit session ID. Poll Everywhere has them answer from a phone, tablet or computer. Simply Voting offers a telephone voting system for callers.
An instant voting website has to get strangers to the right page without friction. StrawPoll's page says creators need no signup, yet the pages checked do not say what voters need, and they leave the same gap for Slido and Mentimeter. A presenter who wants certainty tests the join on a second device before the room arrives.
Enter the code, open the page, or dial the number: three ways in, and the tool sets each one.
Live voting platform limits: participants and responses
A live voting platform shows its limits in numbers, and the numbers differ. Slido's free Basic plan has a 100-participant limit. Mentimeter's free plan allows presentations until a monthly total of 50 participants is reached. Poll Everywhere supports up to 5,000 responses per activity.
These caps are the practical difference between free plans, and the table on this page sets them side by side. A room of 60 fits under Slido's free Basic limit and over Mentimeter's monthly total, while a lecture hall of several hundred fits neither. The pages checked do not say what happens at the cap, so whether extra people are refused, queued or counted is a question for the vendor's plan page.
The vote count is a separate limit. Miro's help page gives 99 as the maximum number of votes, and its voting is anonymous. A contest that runs on such a platform inherits the cap, since an organiser's rules decide how a platform's count is used.
Classroom polling: what UNLV and UCI say about Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere turns up in university support pages as a classroom choice. UNLV calls it the university's enterprise polling solution, supported by UNLV IT. At UCI it is a web-based classroom polling and learning engagement tool, available to all faculty and staff.
UNLV adds that Poll Everywhere can integrate into WebCampus, where students can be assigned grades for low-stakes, in-class interactive activities created in the platform. A university page describes it as an audience-response tool that lets instructors collect student responses in real time using a phone, tablet or computer.
Both pages describe institutional access, so a teacher who wants classroom polling software checks the school's own rules before signing up personally.
Anonymous voting and images: what is documented
Anonymous voting and image questions come from different tools in the pages checked. Miro states that its voting is anonymous. Poll Everywhere lists clickable images among its question types. No page checked describes one tool that offers both, so a creator who needs both confirms each tool's settings.
Anonymous means different things in different tools: the tally can hide names from other voters, from the organiser, or from both. Miro's note says only that voting is anonymous, and the pages checked do not spell out who can still see identities.
When a count looks fake: administrators, organisers and rules
Where a contest publishes a public count, the organiser's rules, not the voting tool, decide whether a count stands. An organiser can disqualify an entry when its votes look fake, and a platform can act on activity its own checks flag. One guide on spotting fake voting says sudden spikes in votes, especially in a short period, can be a red flag, and that suspected bot behaviour can be reported to the website or platform administrators, who have more tools and access to data to investigate.
Simply Voting says its telephone voting system can handle spikes well beyond the configured number of ports. That describes capacity, not checking: a system that copes with a spike still leaves the organiser to decide whether the spike was real.
Whether a count is treated as fake is a call made by an administrator or an organiser, with logs and tools the presenter never sees. The pages checked make no promise that a count will be accepted.
Live voting systems and presentations: two shapes of one tool
A live voting system in a meeting has two audiences to serve: the organiser, who needs the count, and the voters, who need a way in. Slido offers its free Basic plan for live polls and other meeting interactions. Mentimeter frames its free plan around presentations. Running a live poll during presentation time therefore comes down to the cap: 100 participants on one, a monthly total of 50 on the other.
Software of this kind is organised by plan, so the cap, not the feature list, is what a presenter compares first. Vevox and Fast Poll state no cap in the pages checked, which is a reason to ask before relying on either for a large room.
| Tool | How people take part | What the pages state |
|---|---|---|
| StrawPoll | Creator needs no signup | Free plan has no limit on polls |
| Slido | Live polls and other meeting interactions | Free Basic: three polls, one quiz, 100 participants |
| Mentimeter | Presentations with an audience | Free plan: monthly total of 50 participants |
| Miro | Voting tool on the collaboration toolbar | Anonymous voting; 99 is the maximum number of votes |
| Vevox | 9-digit session ID in a web app | Results in real time on web-enabled devices |
| Fast Poll | Tap to vote | Every tap counted in real time |
| Poll Everywhere | Phone, tablet or computer | Up to 5,000 responses per activity |
How to do it
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Pick the tool that matches the room
Fast Poll counts every tap in real time, Vevox uses a 9-digit session ID, and Poll Everywhere collects responses from a phone, tablet or computer. The join method is what differs, so the room decides the tool.
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Create the question
StrawPoll needs no signup to create a poll. Slido's free Basic plan allows up to three polls and one quiz within each Slido, so the number of questions is planned in advance.
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Share the way in
With Vevox, participants open the web app on a mobile device and enter the 9-digit session ID. Put the code on a screen the whole room can read.
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Watch the tally move
Vevox shows results in real time on any web-enabled device, and Fast Poll counts every tap in real time. Poll Everywhere says responses update in real time as audiences answer via their device.
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Check the cap before the room fills
Slido's free Basic plan has a 100-participant limit and Mentimeter's free plan allows a monthly total of 50 participants. Poll Everywhere supports up to 5,000 responses per activity.
Common questions
What is a quick voting app?
A quick voting app is a tool that collects answers from phones or other devices and shows the running count as votes arrive. Fast Poll says every tap is counted in real time, and Vevox offers live polling with results in real time on any web-enabled device.
How much does it cost?
Free plans cover small rooms, and the caps differ by tool. StrawPoll's free plan has no limit on polls, Slido's free Basic plan allows three polls and 100 participants, and Mentimeter's free plan allows a monthly total of 50 participants. Monthly plans exist too, and their figures are left out here because vendors change them.
What voting methods do quick voting apps support?
Documented methods are tapping on a device, entering a session ID in a web app, answering from a phone, tablet or computer, and calling a telephone voting system. Poll Everywhere adds question types such as multiple-choice, word clouds, open-ended responses, clickable images, Q&A and competitions.
Do I need an account?
StrawPoll says no signup is required to create a poll. The pages checked for Slido, Mentimeter, Vevox and Fast Poll do not state whether a creator needs an account, so a creator confirms that on each tool's own sign-up page before planning a session.
Do voters need an account?
The pages checked do not state that voters need an account. Vevox describes joining by opening a web app on a mobile device and entering a 9-digit session ID, and Poll Everywhere describes answering from a phone, tablet or computer. A tool's own help page settles whether a given session asks for more.
Can I run an anonymous poll with images?
Two tools are documented for the two halves: Miro says its voting is anonymous, and Poll Everywhere lists clickable images among its question types. No page checked shows one tool doing both, so the combination is confirmed in the tool's own settings before the session.
Where these facts come from
- Strawpoll. strawpoll.com.
- community.slido.com. community.slido.com/community-q-a-7/how-many-polls-can-i-use-in-the-free-plan-6781.
- help.mentimeter.com. help.mentimeter.com/en/articles/1258367-what-is-included-in-the-free-account.
- vevox.com. vevox.com/features/live-polling.
- fast-poll.com. fast-poll.com/instant-online-voting/.
A quick voting app cannot make a count credible by itself: the organiser's published rules and the platform's own checks decide which votes stand, and a contest can disqualify a count it treats as fake. This page recommends no single tool, states no price, and says nothing about who wins a contest.
X prohibits coordinating with or compensating others to inflate engagement metrics, and it names Polls among the features covered. The Pet Industry Business Awards name the consequence in their own contest: a business may be investigated, lose votes or be disqualified on reasonable evidence of purchased votes. No seller can stop an organiser from doing that.
Slido says it is alerted when an event gets an unusually high number of votes in a very short time, and Crowdsignal says its built-in measures detect patterns of potentially abusive voting. Ordinary participation arrives spread across the voting window, from different people at different moments. Nothing on this site is a method for getting a vote past a check, and a vote that a tool blocks does not count.
Organiser rules differ: the RSPCA Pet of the Year Awards allow extra votes through donations on their official mechanism, while OpenTable Australia treats a vote cast in exchange for money or a reward as null and void. Both are contest rules, not statutes, and whether payment is lawful where you live is a question for a lawyer. Orders are refused for any contest whose rules ban paid votes, and for political ballots.
Votes ordered for a poll that never appear on its count are refunded after the poll closes. A refund never covers an organiser's decision: Localsearch may void all votes for a disqualified nominee, and Mentimeter says a user whose access it cancels under its Acceptable Use Policy is owed no refund or compensation. No result is promised.